do you
feel the
wind blow,
do you fear
tomorrow?

natures clock
ticks seconds,
with minutes
then to follow,

as the hours
you await

become containers
of your fate.

what begins,
what is not seen,
are the moments
in between

the crying
and the dying.

the spaces
where hope
resides.

if I could remember,
I’d only start to cry.
I’d weep for all the chances
that somehow passed me by.

instead, I wallow in
the ignorance of bliss,
that never will I know
the things that I don’t miss.

my heart will never ache
for loves lost beauty in the past,
or bemoan a simple mistake
that caused it not to last.

If I could remember,
I know I would regret
every single thing
I’ve tried so earnestly
to
forget…

yet,
I realize I exist
in a state of temporary
impermanence,
on the journey to
the next minute
that has infinite
possibilities
but only one
finality.

I cannot stop the thought –

what would happen
if you touched me?

what happens when
she smiles?

what ocean holds
her tears?

what gentle breeze
of Summers past,
whispers
in her ears?

what memories remain,
in her fingertips?

what hours touch
the yearnings in her heart?

what moments seek
to comfort her
since
we have been apart?

what causes her
to dream?

what sorrows
fill her head?

what moon sends forth
it’s lonely beam
to shine
upon her bed

laying softly,
tenderly on her skin,

with a touch
as gentle and loving,
as the heart that beats within

the object of my desire.

illuminating her
in an angelic glow,
a beatific fire

that my heart
may never know.

morning mist
September’s daughter
gently kissed
upon the water

I’ve searched for you
in realms uncertain
peering through
your veiled curtain

forever seeking
what is not there
yet, you are speaking
everywhere

in whispered sighs
upon the breeze
in soft goodbyes
my heart you tease

you are here
you will not stay

you’ve come to usher
Summer away…

soundsof71:

Aretha Franklin, 1965, by Columbia Records’ Henry Parker. I came across this via nightflight, and remembered it from an album cover….then realized that I’d seen it on THREE album covers over the years.

The first appearance was on 1965′s Aretha Franklin Yeah!!! In Person with Her Quartet (also sometimes just called Yeah!!!), which is part of her sorely overlooked pre-Atlantic catalog on Columbia. This one is especially cool because it’s a live recording with Aretha fronting a jazz quartet (her last jazz outing until 1969), with Kenny Burrell (guitar) and Teddy Harris (piano) featured especially well.

To be precise, it was recorded live in the studio, with audience sounds overdubbed (a distressingly common practice well into the 70s). Hey, it works, though, and you really don’t know enough about Aretha until you know this record.

It turns out that the box set

Take A Look: Aretha Franklin Complete On Columbia includes the live studio recording without the audience overdubs, and lo and behold, uses a detail from the very same photo as Yeah!!!.

Tthe 2016 UK vinyl re-release of The Electrifying Aretha Franklin, her second album for Columbia, back in 1962 also used this photo (a vast improvement on the US original, and really, why the hell not).

It actually sounds a lot more like the 50s, with Aretha on piano fronting big band arrangements of standards (”You Made Me Love You”, “Rock A Bye Your Baby”) and cheesy rock and roll/R&b mashups (”I Told You So”, “Rough Lover”).

She’d make some giant leaps in very short order, but it’s still startling to hear just how much authority she sang (and played!!!) with at only 19!!! (She was 20 by the time it was released.)

Seriously, check out Spotify, YouTube, or wherever else you scavenge for such things. Between Electrifying as a curio that will blow your mind, and Yeah!!! as an early classic, you’re gonna have some fun with these.